


the faces that you meet

by SugarFey



Category: The Expanse (TV)
Genre: (sort of), Gen, Missing Scene, Pre-Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-30 21:40:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19411945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SugarFey/pseuds/SugarFey
Summary: In a bar on Ceres, Drummer ran into a young girl from Earth named Julie Mao.





	the faces that you meet

**Author's Note:**

> I started to have niggling headcanons about Drummer and Julie Mao meeting each other, and this was the result. Thanks to Runawaynun for her feedback on this, and Jamesholden and L for letting me share my thoughts.
> 
> This is unbetaed, so any errors are my own.

Drummer knows the girl is from Earth from the moment she walks into the Hyperion. Inners always think they can blend in on Ceres when really any kid could spot them. It’s something in their posture and their way of walking, like they are expecting to take up more of the room than they deserve. You grow up on an overcrowded space station and you learn how to respect personal space.

The girl must have misinterpreted Drummer’s look, because she heads right for the bar and plops down next to Drummer on the bench. “You look like you could use a drink,” she says, and her Earther cadence would sound rough to Drummer’s ears if she wasn’t used to it by now from Fred.

Drummer tilts her glass towards the girl. “Already got one.” 

“Bring her another, then,” the girl says to the bartender, tossing her head. 

Drummer raises an eyebrow, one finger tapping against the glass. “Bit presumptive, _ke?_ ” 

The girl shrugs. “Maybe I don’t want to drink alone.” 

Drummer takes a proper look at the girl for the first time. She’s pretty; smooth skin, deep black hair, nice nails. Her hands look soft as silk. Not from one of the haulers or the mining ships, then. “How long you been here?” Drummer asks, intrigued despite her better judgement. 

“Over a month,” the girl murmurs. She accepts her drinks from the bartender and places one by Drummer’s hand. The liquid shimmers in the light. It’s the good stuff, top shelf vodka imported from the distilleries on Ganymede. The girl looks twenty-one, twenty-two at most. When Drummer was that age she was drinking rotgut moonshine on creaky OPA rockhopper ships. Whoever this girl is, she has script to spend.

The girl tucks her hair behind her ear and shifts a little closer. “I’m Julie.” 

Ah. Drummer smiles into her drink. It’s not like she has a policy against fucking Inners, but Julie is a little on the young side for her. Girls who have newly arrived on Ceres on their own tend to get attached, and Drummer is just passing through. Still, nothing wrong with a bit of flirting. She raises her glass to Julie. “Drummer.” 

Something flickers in Julie’s eyes and she leans towards her, suddenly eager. “Camina Drummer? I thought I recognised you. Dawes mentioned he knew someone high up at Tycho Station.” 

The vodka against Drummer’s tongue tastes sour. Dawes. Of fucking course. She should have guessed it the moment Julie paid for her drink. Another spoiled fucking rich kid coming to Ceres to play radical and piss off Daddy. She saw them all the time when she used to run with the Ceres factions. Inner brats and the children of _welwalas_ from the upper decks. Combine them with ignorant, desperate rockhoppers and kids from the medina slums and you have yourself an easily manipulable little army. Dawes always knew how to make the most of that. 

She’s so wrapped up in her thoughts, it takes her a moment to realise that Julie is still talking.

“…the way you defended those dock workers when the Martians seized their water supply? That was insane, Dawes said you were the best shot he ever—“ 

“Dawes telling you stories?” Drummer sneers, not even attempting to hide her contempt. “He find you on some street or did you come here to play OPA from the start?”

Julie’s face falls, and for a second, Drummer regrets speaking so harshly. She’s just a kid, after all. Yet another dumb kid. 

Then Julie’s cheeks redden, the hurt across her features replaced by a scowl. “Fuck you.” She slams her glass on the counter, causing a few people to look their way. 

The disdain rises in Drummer’s chest again, and it feels like a relief. She smiles, mockingly sweet. “Touch a nerve, _inya?”_

Julie shoots her a murderous look and scrambles off the bench. Drummer reaches over and drains her bottle. No sense in letting that vodka go to waste.

* * *

She sees Julie again a few weeks later when she comes out of a meeting with representatives from the dockers’ unions. Fred often sends her out to negotiate transport deals between the Ceres docks and Tycho. He does like to make the most of her connections. 

“So,” Drummer acknowledges. “You still here.” 

Julie has lost weight since Drummer last saw her. Her shoulders are slumped, hands shoved deep in the pockets of her jumpsuit. Flakes of dry skin cling to her lips and her eyes are ringed with shadows. Still, she flicks her head. “You’re here too.”

There is a strange familiarity to Julie’s attempts at defiance. Drummer clasps her arms behind her back and looks Julie up and down. “You run with Dawes for real now.”

Julie draws herself up, and she’s only an inch or so taller than Drummer. Her eyes glint with determination despite her obvious exhaustion. “I asked Dawes about you. He said you were a good soldier, one of the best. But you sold out to Tycho when you could be serving the fight.” 

Drummer feels her mouth tighten. “Said that, did he?” Of course he would. Asshole. Drummer has been fighting her whole life, as he well knows. And Julie has clearly been eating up his bullshit. The sheer amount of privilege it must take to look down on someone for going after a good job is lost on Julie Mao. Maybe she should slum it a bit longer, let the hunger teach her what a Belter life truly means. 

“That why you come here? The fight? The great Belter revolution? Pissing off your parents?”

“I came here to make a difference!” Julie snaps. “I came because I saw what we on Earth are doing to the Belt. What my father is doing. I couldn’t stand by and watch anymore.”

“And us poor Belters should be grateful for your help.” Drummer’s lip curls. “Right up until things get tough and you hop on the first cruiser back to Earth.” 

Julie juts her chin forward, but the rest of her body remains stiffly in place. “Dawes was right; you have spent too long on Tycho. At least the OPA are trying to help the Belt.” 

Drummer laughs, and the sound is hollow to her ears. “And you think this is helping the Belt? Stealing from ships to line Dawes’ pockets? Shouting at Star Helix until they punch you, just so you can punch them back and start a riot that gets kids trampled to death?” 

Julie’s hands slide out of her pockets, balled into fists. “I sacrificed everything to get here. My father’s company is a threat to the Belt. There’s something out there that they could use against us, a new weapon maybe. Dawes knows a way we could get hold of it, find out if—“ 

She breaks off, her fists tightening, almost trembling. She looks furious and at the same time, pathetically young. Sometimes bravado is all you have in the face of fear. Drummer knows that all too well. 

“You want to help the Belt?” Drummer lowers her voice, aiming for a gentleness she has never quite perfected. “Come to Tycho. Work with the engineering crews fixing the air filters on rockhopper ships. Volunteer in the school. Do shifts in food distribution. You won’t be a hero. Your name won’t be in any news feeds. But you’d be doing good.” 

Julie shakes her head, her hair flowing slowly about her face in the spin gravity. “I promised I’d go on the _Scopuli_. It has to be me; I know how my father thinks. People are relying on me.”

“If this weapon is as dangerous as you say,” Drummer replies, choosing her words carefully, “you need resources. A proper team. Tycho can give you that.” 

Julie takes in a ragged breath, her shoulders slouching forward. She probably has not slept in days. “I leave tonight.” 

_I know this story,_ Drummer wants to say. _He came to you and told you that everything depended on you alone. That you could save the Belt single-handedly. Then he will put you on a ship and tell you to fly into the sun._

Instead, she folds her arms. “I hope you know what you’re doing.” 

Julie does not meet her eyes. “I hope so, too.”


End file.
